Adventures in Alterations: Shoe Repair

Since small shoes are so hard to find, the ones I have I try to take extra good care of. Of course, my favorites end up looking like they’ve been through war because I wear them so much, and that’s when it’s time to take them to the cobbler. Here are two of my little soldiers, back from the shopping and bar hopping trenches.

Cole Haans: The patent leather at the tip has been worn away

Christian Louboutins: The soles have been worn down

Christian Louboutins: The heel fell in a sidewalk crack and scraped the patent leather off

The wine colored Cole Haans are my “shopping shoes”, and have been around the block a time or two. Apparently I’m a little rough on the toes of my shoes, because I actually scraped into the patent leather at the tip. The brown patent Christian Louboutin was a victim of a sidewalk crack, in which the heel fell and scraped some of the leather right off. Poor little guy!

I took my shoes to a very well recommended shoe repair shop here in Los Angeles called Pasquale Shoe Repair and they fixed my babies up. Unfortunately patent leather is harder to repair than natural leather, so the repair isn’t perfect, but I was more concerned with covering over the white leather showing through than anything else.

Cole Haans: New tips put on and patent leather touched up with paint

Christian Louboutins: New soles put on

Christian Louboutins: Scraped leather glued back down and touched up with paint

The Cole Haans look great, but I’m a bit bummed I beat up the heel on my Christian Louboutin so badly. Oh well…that’ll teach me to pay better attention on heavily cracked sidewalks!

6 Comments

The shoe repair makes quite a difference! Hey, I have a "challenge" for you! I live in a small town and the best available, decent store to shop at for a tiny petite is "Ann Taylor Loft". I was wondering if you could help find styles and selections appropriate for 4'll'' and under in dresses, skinny jeans, and dress pants. I really need a cute black dress, and a nice dress to wear to church! I went in and didn't have much luck, but I thought you might be able to help me find a few "gems" in there that I might be missing. Again, I am small town girl, so there is really not much else unless I make a special trip to Dallas. Thanks. Love your blog!

Hi PetiteAsianGirl,I can't for the life of me find the receipt for the shoe repair job, so I'm not sure how much it cost. I think it was around $30…but that's me not remembering. And, yes, these are the same shoes that got eaten in Vegas. Sidewalk grates everywhere are out to get them!

Hi There – I just read this post and really like the information you have provided. Thank you. I need to get a pair of Ferragamo flats fixed and buffed. I did a lot of research on luxury leather and just wanted to add that patent leather, while beautiful (I love a good patent leather pump!), is often the luxury designer way’s of being….economical…while still fashionable. Patent leather is much easier to produce and needs lower quality leather. It can even use blemished leather, because of the gloss coat that goes over the leather to make it “patent leather”. Basically its a nail polish lacquer that goes on lower quality leather to make it look “high quality”.

Regular non patent leather is much harder to source because it requires a higher grain of leather – especially for shoes.

Just wanted to pass that tid bit along. I am always checking for material quality before I buy, especially retail priced luxury brands.